While on Lanta we debated doing a day trip over to the Phi Phi islands, then decided that we may as well see it properly and spend a couple of nights there, despite it being the most expensive island! The boat only took an hour and instantly it was beautiful. We stepped off the boat into a hustley- bustley street and were presented with a plethora of different accommodations, most of which were way out of our price range! We settled on the Ingphu View Point and were led through the streets by a lad who worked there, him wheeling a cart with our bags in. The streets on Phi Phi are mostly too narrow and too busy for cars, so you see a lot of these carts, or else people on bicycles or scooters. After a while we reached signs of the 'Tsunami Village' and I was reminded that despite what we saw, this island had been ravaged not so long ago. The image was made more clear when we walked past a building site (don't picture a building site from home, it's not like that), which I'm sure can't be left over from the catastrophe of 5 years ago, but evoked a sense, on a small scale, of what the devastation would have been like.

After a while we reached a steep road, and luckily the guy reversed us and our bags up it on a little truck. The climb up to our bungalow was sooooo steep. Probably even worse than the climb on Samui! But thankfully this place had been sensible enough to install a trolley-pully system for transporting luggage up and down. Our bungalow was timber and quite cute. The beds had mosquito nets hooked above them, which we didn't use, but gave the air of a four poster! Luxury! Well, not quite. For the price it could have been a lot better, or at least had air con, but we knew to expect major overpricing on Phi Phi so were pleased with what we'd got!

As we arrived early in the morning we could spend pretty much the whole day on the beach. Thailand just gets better. Beach bar after beach bar made up a little strip behind the sand and incredibly shallow water stretched for ages before deepening and leading out to the ocean. The shape of this part of the island forms a C shape lying down and sitting on the back of another C, if that makes sense (I guess probably not, so google image it!) which made for a lovely view, enhanced by yet more of the lovely long tails. The only downside was the intense smell of petrol which attacked us all day long and left our towels reeking! We spent the evening wandering around the busy central area which is full of shops and restaurants.

The next day we went on a long tail tour of the island. A day which made our top 10 of the entire trip and was simply superb. Climbing into the long tails at the start was interesting, especially as we had to clamber across 2 others before reaching ours. But we soon got used to it after hopping in and out all day! Impossible to do gracefully though! The tour took us to all of the best bits - Bamboo Island, Monkey Beach, Phi Leh Lagoon, Viking Cave, Losamah Bay and the highlight - Maya Bay, where they filmed The Beach. Each beach was pristine white sand and every bit of ocean was the bluest, greenest, most beautiful water I have ever seen. Forget Ao Nang. Phi Phi is the stuff of paradise. Even the fish, which needless to say I was not going to go anywhere near, I had to admit were really quite pretty. In a disgusting way.

You could stay here forever and never tire of the view. It's hard to believe that the islands were so terrorised by nature not so long ago. The trees are all a luscious green, the sand is perfect, the cliffs and rocks are amazing, the water is clear and so colourful. You know when you're told to lye on the floor and close your eyes, and picture a beautiful, serene island (like in a drama lesson at school or something) - Phi Phi is the physical embodiment of that image. It's a dream world.

We watched the sun go down whilst sitting on the boat - a perfect ending to a perfect day. We were so glad to share it with people that we got on well with - it's unusual in a group of 12 to not find anyone particularly annoying!

Back on land we wandered around the shops once more, and I bought a pretty little ring as a memento of our perfect day. The only downside of the trip was that both of us spent the entire evening feeling like we were still on a boat. This made our meal at the Pirate House all the more appropriate, and the food was good too!

Thank you for being amazing Phi Phi. We love you.